Of the Altarians

Of the Altarians

The Altarians do not call themselves Altarians. It is the term humans call the residents of the third planet orbiting Ara Centauri. Known as "The Altar", it has become simply known as Altaria since it is the only planet with intelligent life in that part of the galaxy.

The evolutionary history of the Altarians is a story on its own. The Altarians name for their own planet is loosely translated as "Elemental". But how they evolved on this world is something of a mystery.

Long ago, a sentient species evolved from warm blooded lizard-like beings that became known as the Drath. And yet, multiple humanoid species evolved in a short amount of time despite the lack of any primate species on the planet.

There are many theories on how so many different sentient species could arise on the planet. But the various myths and religions on Altaria insist that it was the result of the presence of the dark Mithrilar Draginol whose influence caused a single humanoid species to evolve alongside the Drath. This attracted the Precursors whose conflict had not matured.

The Precursors fought a series of proxy wars using the fledgling Altarians as their clients. Different Precursors modified the young Altarians in different way resulting in a series of subspecies and early nations. The Drath found themselves in the middle of this conflict and eventually was forced to flee the world with the help of sympathetic Precursors.

In the meantime, a series of incredible wars were fought out on Altaria with different factions laying claim to the world. At the end of one particularly brutal war, the planet is nearly destroyed in what becomes known as the cataclysm. Nearly all life on the world is wiped out.

While the world recovers, the war between the Precursor factions raged across the galaxy in what becomes better known as the Arnor/Dread Lord wars. The war is concluded just as the world begins to heal itself.

The post-cataclysm Altaria recovers slowly with different factions vying for control. The world itself is littered with artifacts of the Precursor wars which threaten to ultimately destroy the world again.

Much of the history between the rebirth and modern Altaria is lost. What is known is that the modern Altarians are highly peaceful and benevolent. They also have the genetic ability to manipulate what is known as "dark energy". It is a difficult concept to grasp. Just as different species can recognize different light spectrums, the Altarians have the capability to inherently make some use of dark energy.

This inherent ability has only limited use in a technological society. As the rise of the Drengin Empire and Arcean Empires show, technology is the ultimate equalizer.

Physically, Altarians look identical to humans. They are not, however, humans. They are not genetically compatible and do not share the same DNA. But they are similar enough in DNA to ensure that there is some unknown connection between the two.

Does this mean Stardock has a New Year's present for us? Interesting backstory... I hope we get to hear a little more about the Thalan (who are my favorites!) soon. The next TA beta can't come soon enough for me!

The dark energy in the GalCiv universe isn't the same thing physicists are referring to. Dark energy is typically just a glorified fudge factor in physics computations.

The dark energy in the GalCiv universe is a simplified term for some of the offshoots of string theory (which the GalCiv universe relies heavily on). In GalCiv, dark energy is essentially the energy not accounted for when the unified theory of force is discovered.

Basically, in the game lore, sometime in the late 21st century string theory is able to produce some very specific and relativley simple equations that provide a unified theory for force. These theories then predict certain amounts of energy to be produced in different circumstances but they find that the amount of energy observed is less than predicted. And this is where dark energy comes into play. And that scientists don't see it as a fudge factor but know it is some unknown type of energy that is not well understood.

Now, again, purely into the sci-fantasy lore of GalCiv, this unknown "dark energy" is the result of the Telenanth which was used to change the laws of physics that we know today in order to allow certain types of molecular bonds to occur. But even the game's understanding of it is very hazy and evolving.

Also according to the game lore, dark energy is attracted to sentience. The more intense the sentience, the more potential it has to make use of dark energy inherently. Humans, even in the 23rd century, however, find this laughable.

The human theory about the Dread Lords, Arnor, and Altarians is that they make use of a nano technology that gives the appearance of "magic". The hypothesis is that specifically that Dread Lords (having now been observed in battle) make use of a mesh of millions of tiny nano bots who have their own gravitational channelling capability are able to provide a wide range of amazing powers to individuals.

The humans are quite certain of that because they know, of course, there is no such thing as magic.

Ha! It sounds like the Terrans are desperately trying to avoid the cuts of Occam's Razor.

Rather than the simplest explanation, the one that allows the denial of things in Heaven and Earth that aren't dreamt of in their philosophy.

I think you have that backwards, the Terrans are effectively using Occam's Razor to avoid opening the huge can of worms that the alternative would imply.

Which to me, is giving humans way too much credit. Once Terrans learned about dark energy, overnight you would normally have numerous human charlatans all claiming they can manipulate dark energy to perform simple parlor tricks, and huge audiences readily believing in such claptrap. Of course I suppose humans of the future could design an education system to be highly skeptical of claims of magic, but I think its probably in human nature to be gullible to these sort of claims. Certainly I think humans would be the first to openly embrace the Krynn religion.

Seriously, explaining everything the Altarians and Dread Lords do as being nanotech? While it may sound like the simplest explanation, it's complicated by the relative lack of nanotech-like technological benefits available to Altarians otherwise. Nanotech is not the simplest explanation, it simply appears to be the preferred. I mean, okay, the Altarian tech tree may grant them immense production and repair bonuses, but I wouldn't expect it.

The Dread Lords, sure, but their tech is already advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic.

Physically, Altarians look identical to humans. They are not, however, humans. They are not genetically compatible and do not share the same DNA. But they are similar enough in DNA to ensure that there is some unknown connection between the two.

Are you sure? The two Altarians I've seen so far are more human-looking then the human.

The Dread Lords, sure, but their tech is already advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic.

I hope this game doesn't go into a science-magic combination, One has to remember the exclusion of a single compound can make 'magic' happen. This is how the Europeans conquered the New Worlds so easily because they had their "Shiny rods calling down Thunder from the Gods and striking men dead" or "muskets".

We could be missing some chemical, or knowledge that makes relatively simple things to them seem like jaw dropping, crotch grabbing, knee shaking magic